Yahoo!’s chief executive officer, Marissa Mayer, sent an email out to all of Yahoo!’s employees in the US, giving them the option to choose from a new Apple, Samsung, Nokia or HTC smarpthone. RIM’s devices will no longer be one of the phones Yahoo! employees can choose from.

Below is a full copy of the Mayer’s email to Yahoo!’s 12,000 employees around the world:

“We have a very exciting update to share with you today – we are announcing Yahoo! Smart Phones, Smart Fun! As of today, Yahoo is moving off of blackberries (sic) as our corporate phones and on to smartphones in 22 countries. A few weeks ago, we said that we would look into smartphone penetration rates globally and take those rates into account when deciding on corporate phones. Ideally, we’d like our employees to have devices similar to our users, so we can think and work as the majority of our users do.“Moving forward, we’ll offer you a choice of devices as well as provide monthly plans for the data and phone.“The smartphone choices that we are including in the programme are:* Apple iPhone 5* Android:– Samsung Galaxy S3– HTC One X– HTC EVO 4G LTE* Windows Phone 8:– Nokia Lumia 920“We’re getting started right away and taking orders starting now.”

As part of the new programme, Yahoo! will cover the monthly bills for the new smartphones for its workers.

In an email reply to an inquiry about the report, a Yahoo! spokeswoman wrote: “We don’t comment on rumours, speculations or internal matters.”

RIM, meanwhile, is getting ready to launch its BB10 line of phones and is hoping the new line of devices can turn its ship around after a stunning decline in marketshare and stock price in the past year.